Biography | stirlingmoss.com Biography Marital Status : Married to Susie Nationality : British First Race Win : 4th July 1948, Brough Aerodrome, UK, Cooper JAP 500cc Last Race Win : 4th Feb 1962, 100 Mile race, Warwick Farm, AU, Cooper-Climax 2700cc FORMULA 1 CAREER STATS Teams : Mercedes-Benz, Maserati, Vanwall, Rob Walker, Cooper and Lotus First GP Win : 1955 British GP Last GP Win : 1961 German GP 1954 - 1962 RACING STATS *Percentage calculated as the number victories achieved in races finished FUN FACTS Narrator of the smash hit kids TV show - Roary the Racing Car, voiced by Peter Kay Stirling's mother's family name of Craufurd can be traced back to William Wallace whose mother was also a Craufurd. Biography Sir Stirling Moss OBE is arguably the greatest all-round racing driver of all time and a true icon of the motor racing world.

Known during his career as ‘Mr Motor Racing’ he became a professional driver in 1948, at the age of 18, racing a Cooper 500. His early career was meteoric, with works drives for both Jaguar and HWM. 1955 was a seminal year; he was signed by Mercedes-Benz, the famed "Silver Arrows", to partner the legendary World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio. That year saw Stirling shadow the great Argentine in most Grands Prix, famously beating him to win the British Grand Prix at Aintree racing the Mercedes-Benz W196 Monoposto. In that same year, he also won the epic 1,000 mile Mille Miglia road race in the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR at an astonishing average speed of 97.96mph on public roads, the Targa Florio road race, again in the 300 SLR, and the Tourist Trophy at Dundrod.

"In 1955 he was signed up by Mercedes-Benz to partner World Champion Fangio..." For four years he would finish runner-up in the Formula 1 Drivers World Championship, his sportsmanship at the Portuguese GP allowing Mike Hawthorn to win the 1958 Championship title by half a point at his expense. After Mercedes-Benz retired from motor racing following the 1955 Le Mans tragedy, Stirling led the Maserati and Vanwall teams. He raced 107 different types of car, across all classes of motor sport, during his remarkable career. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he led the changeover to rear engined Formula 1 cars with the Cooper-Climax, achieving the first victory for such a car at the 1958 Argentine Grand Prix, and was in a class of his own during this period. His victory in the 1961 Monaco Grand Prix, racing a Lotus 18 against the more powerful Ferrari's, was his third Formula 1 victory around Principality and is still regarded as one of the best Formula 1 races ever.

Between 1954, his first year with what Stirling considered a proper Formula 1 car, the Maserati 250F, and 1962, he took part in 318 races of all types, finished in 225 of them, and bear in mind cars were not reliable in those days, and won 134. "Stirling considered the Maserati 250F to be his first proper F1 race car..." He drove a Ferrari on 14 occasions, winning 12 of the races entered and taking 10 fastest laps. Of the remaining two races, he was disqualified at Sebring because the mechanics put in fuel when in fact the car had come in for brake linings, and in the 1961 Le Mans the radiator hose was cut by a fan blade when he was third overall and leading the GT Class.

Stirling drove for Rob Walker from 1958 to 1962, taking part in 93 races, finishing 70 of them with 46 first places, and also drove a Maserati in 72 races, finishing in 50 with 25 first places and 31 lap records. Out of the 375 competitive races in which he finished during his professional racing career, he won an astonishing 212, which is more than one win in two! A near-fatal accident at Goodwood in 1962 ended it all. Once the decision to retire from professional motoring racing was made, Stirling expanded his commercial interests with the same vigour that he employed when racing, chief amongst these being his property business, which he runs to this day with his family. He also designed his home in Mayfair which incorporated home comforts and gadgets which were ahead of their time in the 1960s, including an automated system for running a bath at a pre-set temperature, which could be triggered by pushing a button on one of many control panels located around the house.

He continued to race in historic racing, his familiar White patey helmet and Blue light weight race suit being a regular feature at historic races across the globe. Stirling is well known for his love of design and the latest gadget. In 2009 the Stirling Moss brand was created, see above, which has led to the brand being licensed. During qualifying for 2011 Le Mans Legends race Stirling made the decision to retire from competitive racing. He continues to demonstrate the cars he raced and take part in car rallies. One of the original jet-setters, he remains in huge demand around the world to this day - a true British legend. Aintree - RacingCircuits.info Aintree Address: Aintree Circuit, Melling Road, Liverpool, L9 5AS, United Kingdom PH: Website: Circuit History Merseyside briefly reverberated to the sounds of racing cars as well as horses' hooves at the home of the famous Grand National steeplechase, Aintree. While the Grand Prix course is now but a memory, the smaller club circuit still hosts motorcycle racing and the occasional sprint competition each year. The idea of combining horse and car racing facilities was not unique but still relatively unusual.

Struggling to make the National Hunt course pay its way with just a few meetings a year, Aintree owner Mirabel Topham hit upon the idea of building the car course shortly after a visit to Goodwood. In a something of a masterstroke, the CSI (the forerunner of today's FIA) was persuaded by Aintree officials that the new circuit would make a much better home for the British Grand Prix. While it was similarly flat to windswept Silverstone and could boast only the heavy industry of Liverpool as a backdrop, Aintree's ace card was its facilities. As the race course was host to the largest horse race in Britain, the grandstands and spectator amenities were second-to-none and used to handling enormous crowds. It was enough to make the blazers sit up and take notice... At a cost of £100,000, the largely flat circuit measured exactly three miles and was built in just three months, opening in May 1954. Winding its way around the perimeter of the horse racing track for its first half, the course then ducked across the turf to run through its centre in a technical infield section. A smaller club course consisted of the interior portion only.

Initially operating anti-clockwise, by the start of the 1955 season the circuit direction was reversed. Aintree was awarded the British Grand Prix that year and, in jubilant scenes, Stirling Moss made history by being the first British driver to win his home race. To this day Moss does not know whether the win was a 'gift' from Mercedes team mate Juan-Manuel Fangio or team boss Alfred Neubauer, or whether it was earned on merit; either way, the crowd went home satisfied. Aintree also witnessed another slice of history when it hosted the 1957 Grand Prix, with Moss and Tony Brooks winning for Vanwall - the first such success by British drivers in a British car. Further Grands Prix were held in 1959, '61 and '62, with the circuit ever popular with spectators because it the grandstands gave unrivalled views of the whole course. Even the unrivalled facilities could not save the Grand Prix from moving south to Brands Hatch in 1964.

The ever rising speeds, lack of room for run-off areas and other safety concerns (at several points drivers found themselves aiming between concrete pillars as they negotiated curves, with very little room for error) meant that the exodus was probably inevitable. Did you know? Only one man has ever competed in both horse and car races at Aintree. Spanish nobleman Alfonso de Portago twice rode as a gentleman jockey in the Grand National, before turning his hand to motorsport and driving a sportscar on the Grand Prix course. He had been due to take part in the 1957 British Grand Prix with Ferrari when he was killed competing in the Mille Miglia. The Grand Prix course soldiered on for one more year in 1964, before Mrs Topham announced that Aintree was to be sold off for redevelopment. In the end, the racecourse was never in built upon, but the ownership became a long-drawn out sage until the Jockey Club took control. The new owners understandably had little interest in continuing to host top-level car racing, though they did at least allow the Club Circuit to continue in active use for several meetings a year and for general testing.

Car racing continued on the short course through the 1970s, though inevitably the scale of events held became smaller and smaller. The last large-scale event was held in 1975, when Gunnar Nilsson's March-Toyota F3 car won the Blakeford Trophy. After that, club races were held until July 1982, when during a race five cars went off course, apparently damaging fences on the horse track. An unhappy Jockey Club called an immediate halt to car racing, a situation that continues to the present. Bike racing was still permitted, however, and the Aintree Motorcycle Racing Club continues to host five meetings and one general test per year. Car competition was revived in 1999, when the Liverpool Motor Club began organising sprint events on the Club Course. These have proved popular and are now held three times a year, alongside two track days. Much of the Grand Prix circuit still remains – only the section of track at Melling Crossing has gone – though gates bar the way at several points and speed humps make for slow progress on the run to Tatts Corner.

Nevertheless, some of the roads do see action once a year – as the television camera car races alongside the horses during the Grand National! Getting There Aintree Circuit is located within the Grand National course at Aintree, in the northern suburbs of Liverpool, Merseyside. The nearest airport is Liverpool John Lennon Airport, around 25 minute's drive to the south of the city. The circuit is close to both the M57 and M58 motorways, though the entrance is different to the main horse racing course itself. From the M57/M58 interchange, follow the 'Aintree Race Course' brown tourist signs. At the second set of traffic lights, turn left into Aintree Lane (signposted 'Melling'). After half a mile or so, turn right into Melling Road (signposted for the Aintree Golf Centre), then left into the circuit just over the bridge. Aintree railway station is less than a mile away and around 15 minute's walk from the circuit. Fazakerley station is also close by – around an 18 minute walk to the circuit.

Stirling Moss (Formula One Racer) - Pics, Videos, Dating, & News Kieran Boyle, Liam Browne, Arrested After Red Sox Parade Turns Violent (Graphic Video) Huffington Post Sports - Nov 06, 2013 'A victory celebration over a Red Sox baseball championship win turned to extreme violence as several people were knocked out in brutal attacks. \nTwo suspects were arrested Saturday after video surfaced on Barstool Sports showing attacks on multiple victims during the Red Sox World Championship parade in Boston, Mass. \nKieran Boyle, 21, is accused of kicking a 23-year-old Sterling, Mass. man in the head while he was already down on the ground, CBS Boston reported. \nLiam Browne, 25, was... Silver Arrows Raccers Visit Silverstone Advertiser & Review - Jun 06, 2013 ' British racing legend Sir <mark>Stirling Moss</mark> joined Mercedes AMG Petronas driver Lewis Hamilton at Silverstone last weekend to be photographed alongside two Mercedes-Benz âSilver Arrowâ F1 cars, writes James Beckett.

' Women Can't Hack It In F1: Moss Byron Shire News - Apr 15, 2013 'British racing legend <mark>Stirling Moss</mark> does not believe that women are mentally tough enough to compete in Formula 1.' Show Less Having seen him do well in a relatively uncompetitive car, and wanting to see how he would perform in a better one, Neubauer suggested Moss buy a Maserati for the 1954 season. He bought a Maserati 250F, and although the car's unreliability prevented his scoring high points in the 1954 Drivers' Championship he qualified alongside the Mercedes frontrunners several times and performed well in the races. … Read More In the Italian Grand Prix at Monza he passed both drivers who were regarded as the best in Formula One at the timeâJuan Manuel Fangio in a Mercedes and Alberto Ascari in a Ferrariâand took the lead. Ascari retired with engine problems, and Moss led until lap 68 when his engine also failed. Fangio took the victory, and Moss pushed his Maserati to the finish line.

Read Less Show Less … Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss, (born 17 September 1929) is a British former Formula One racing driver. An inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, he achieved success in several categories of competition and has been described as "the greatest driver never to win the World Championship". Read Less Moss finished as championship runner-up on four occasions and third a further three times between 1955 and 1961. … Read More Moss was born in London, the son of Aileen (nÃ©e Craufurd) and Alfred Moss, a dentist of Bray, Berkshire, where Stirling was raised at Long White Cloud house on the right bank of the River Thames. Alfred was an amateur racing driver who had been placed 16th at the 1924 Indianapolis 500.

Stirling was a gifted horse rider as was his younger sister, Pat Moss, who became a successful rally driver and married Erik Carlsson.<br /><br /> Moss was educated at several independent schools: Shrewsbury House School (Surbiton) Clewer Manor Junior School and the linked senior school Haileybury and Imperial Service College located at Hertford Heath, near Hertford. Read Less Neubauer, already impressed when Moss had tested a Mercedes-Benz W196 at Hockenheim, promptly signed him for 1955. Moss's first Formula One victory was in the 1955 British Grand Prix at Aintree, a race he was also the first British driver to win. … Read More Leading a 1â2â3â4 finish for Mercedes, it was the first time he beat Fangio, his teammate and arch rival, who was also his friend and mentor. It has been suggested that Fangio sportingly allowed Moss to win in front of his home crowd. Moss himself asked Fangio repeatedly, and Fangio always replied: "No.

You were just better than me that day." The same year, Moss also won the RAC Tourist Trophy, the Targa Florio (sharing the drive with Peter Collins), and the Mille Miglia. Read Less In 1955 Moss won Italy's thousand-mile Mille Miglia road race, an achievement Doug Nye described as the "most iconic single day's drive in motor racing history." … Read More Motor Trend headlined it as "The Most Epic Drive. Ever."<br /><br /> Moss, then 25 years old, drove one of four factory-entered Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR sports-racing cars. Based on the W196 Grand Prix car, they had spaceframe chassis and magnesium-alloy bodies, and their modified W196 engines ran on a mixture of petrol, benzene, and alcohol. The team's main race rivals were the factory-entered Ferraris of Piero Taruffi, Eugenio Castellotti, Umberto Maglioli, and Paolo Marzotto.<br /><br /> Journalist Denis Jenkinson was Moss's navigator.

He had intended to go with John Fitch, whose idea it had been to take a navigator, but when Mercedes assigned a 300 SL to Fitch, the American agreed to Jenkinson riding with Moss in the faster SLR. Jenkinson had come up with the idea of pace notes in the form of a roller map of the route on which he had noted its hazardsâan innovation that helped Moss compete against drivers with greater local knowledge. Jenkinson used hand signals to tell him about the road ahead. Radio communication had proved ineffective when they tried it, because when Moss was fully concentrated on his driving he was oblivious to Jenkinson's voice. Read Less … The accident put him in a coma for a month, and for six months the left side of his body was partially paralysed. He recovered, but retired from professional racing after a private test session in a Lotus 19 the following year, when he lapped a few tenths of a second slower than before. He felt he had not regained his previously instinctive command of the car.

Read Less He had been runner-up in the Drivers' Championship four years in succession, from 1955 to 1958, and third in each of the next three years. … Read More In the 1950s Moss participated in several successful speed record attempts.<br /><br /> At the Autodrome de MontlhÃ©ry, a steeply banked oval track near Paris, Moss and Leslie Johnson took turns at the wheel of the latter's Jaguar XK120 to average for 24 hours, including stops for fuel and tyres. Changing drivers every three hours, they covered a total of 2579.16 miles. It was the first time a production car had averaged over for 24 hours.<br /><br /> Revisiting MontlhÃ©ry, Moss was one of a four-driver team, led by Johnson, who drove a factory-owned Jaguar XK120 fixed-head coupÃ© for 7 days and nights at the French track.

Moss, Johnson, Bert Hadley and Jack Fairman averaged to take four World records and five International Class C records, and covered a total of.<br /><br /> In August Moss broke five International Class F records in the purpose-built MG EX181 at Bonneville Salt Flats. The streamlined, supercharged car's speed for the flying kilometer was 245.64 mph, which was the average of two runs in opposite directions. Read Less 1956 26 Years Old Moss won the Nassau Cup at the 1956 and 1957 Bahamas Speed Week. 1957 27 Years Old Also in 1957 he won on the longest circuit ever to hold a World Championship Grand Prix, the Pescara Circuit, where he again demonstrated his mastery of long-distance racing. … Read More The event lasted three hours and Moss beat Fangio, who started from pole position, by a little over 3 minutes.

Read Less Atlas F1: The Formula One World Championship Timeline Atlas F1 Presents: all the milestones, all the names, all the changes, all the headlines - the complete Formula One timeline 1950 The first World Championship for Drivers under the jurisdiction of the FIA (Federation Internationale de l'Automobile) is contested. The World Championship uses cars running to the stipulations laid out in the "Formula One" approved by the FIA in 1947: a maximum capacity of 4,500 cc for unsupercharged engines or 1,500 cc for supercharged engines. First race of the World Championship is the British Grand Prix, on the Silverstone circuit - a former millitary airfield. Giuseppe Farina in an Alfa Romeo wins the race. The Indianapolis 500 is included as round in the FIA World Championship. First rear-engined car in a World Championship event makes its appearance at the Grand Prix of Monaco: a Cooper-JAP driven by Harry Schell. Giuseppe Farina is the first World Champion.

1951 Scuderia Ferrari, with Argentinian driver Froilan Gonzalez at the wheel, achieve its first victory in a World Championship event, winning the R.A.C. British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Juan Manuel Fangio, driving an Alfa Romeo, wins the World Championship. BRM makes its World Championship debut as a constructor. Alfa Romeo withdraws from F1 at the end of the season. 1952 Lack of support for Formula One by race organizers leads to World Championship being run using Formula 2 cars; Formula 2 stipulated a maximum capacity of 2,000 cc unsupercharged. Alberto Ascari, driving an F1 Ferrari, participates in the Indianapolis 500. All rounds in the World Championship, save for the Indianapolis 500, are won by Scuderia Ferrari. Juan Manuel Fangio, as the result of broken neck in a pre-season race at Monza, sits out the season. Alberto Ascari, driving a Ferrari, is World Champion. 1953 First South American round in the World Championship, the Grand Prix of Argentina, is held on the Buenos Aires circuit. The event is so popular, more spectators than the venue could hold show up.

Many sit right at the edge of the track, and the inevitable occurs - at least 15 spectators and many others are injured as a result of a crash. Maserati, with Juan Manuel Fangio driving, wins its first World Championship event in the final race of the season at Monza. Formula 2 ends and is not replaced. Alberto Ascari retains the World Championship. 1954 New Formula One for Grand Prix cars begins: maximum capacity of 2,500cc for unsupercharged engines and 750cc for supercharged engines. The Maserati 250F makes its Grand Prix debut at the Argentinian Grand Prix. Juan Manuel Fangio wins the first race run to the new formula, the Argentinian Grand Prix. Mercedes-Benz re-enters racing, winning its first event back, the French Grand Prix at Reims. Froilan Gonzalez, driving a Ferrari, defeats Mercedes-Benz at the British Grand Prix. Lancia re-enters Grand Prix racing at the Spanish Grand Prix. Juan Manuel Fangio, driving for both Maserati and Mercedes-Benz, wins the World Championship.

1955 Alberto Ascari becomes the first driver to plunge into the harbor at Monte Carlo during an event while driving his Lancia. However, days after his crash at Monaco, Ascari is killed when a tyre deflates on the Ferrari sports car he is driving at Monza. As a result of Ascari's death, and increasing financial problems, Lancia withdraws from Grand Prix racing. Bill Vukovich is killed in a crash while leading the Indianapolis 500. Fiat buys the assets of the Lancia Grand Prix team and presents it to Scuderia Ferrari, along with a stipend to support the team. A Mercedes-Benz sports car, driven by Frenchman Pierre Levegh, crashes into a grandstand area in front of the pits at Le Mans, killing 81 spectators and injuring hundreds more. Mercedes-Benz withdraws from the race. As a result of the Le Mans accident, the Grands Prix of France, Switzerland and Germany are cancelled, along with many other races; Switzerland bans circuit racing as a result. Stirling Moss wins his first World Championship event, the British Grand Prix at Aintree, while driving a Mercedes-Benz. Mercedes-Benz withdraws from Grand Prix racing at the end of the season.

Juan Manuel Fangio wins his third World Championship. 1956 Ferrari use cars received from Lancia as the basis of their team. Vanwall introduce new car with a Colin Chapman designed chassis, and bodywork by Frank Costin. During the Italian Grand Prix, Peter Collins gives his car to Juan Manuel Fangio, forfeiting any opportunity of winning the Championship. Stirling Moss, driving a specially built offset Maserati 250F, wins the Italian Grand Prix. Ferrari experience tyre troubles for most the season with its the Engelbert tyres. Their failure at Monza leads to some spectacular crashes. Juan Manuel Fangio wins his fourth World Championship while driving for Ferrari. Seizure of Suez Canal in late 1956 results in fuel shortages in Britain and France, and racing is curtailed into the next year. 1957 Maserati produces a revised 250F and Juan Manuel Fangio returns to the team. A Vanwall, shared by Tony Brooks and Stirling Moss, gives Britain its first win by a British constructor by winning the British Grand Prix at Aintree. Fangio has what he describes as his greatest drive during the German Grand Prix.

Pescara, the longest circuit ever used for a Championship event (25.5 km), hosts its only Championship Grand Prix. Juan Manuel Fangio wins his fifth World Championship. 1958 The Grand Prix formula, now extended to the end of 1960, now stipulates the use of AvGas in the place of alcohol fuels and reduces the length of Championship events from 500 km or three hours to 300 km or two hours. At the season-opening Argentinian Grand Prix, Stirling Moss gives Cooper its first win in a World Championship event and is also the first Championship win for a rear-engined car, a private entrant (Rob Walker), and the Coventry Climax engine. Maurice Trintignant, using the same Cooper-Climax as Moss at the Argentinian Grand Prix, wins the second consecutive Championship race for the Rob Walker team, the Monaco Grand Prix. Juan Manuel Fangio, at the wheel of a Maserati, runs his final World Championship event, the French Grand Prix at Reims. Luigi Musso is killed during the French Grand Prix when his Ferrari crashes.

Peter Collins is killed during the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring when his Ferrari crashes and hits a tree. Stuart Lewis-Evans dies from injuries and burns received while crashing during the final Championship event of the season, the Grand Prix of Morocco at Casablanca. Mike Hawthorn wins the World Championship by a margin of one point over Stirling Moss. Vanwall wins the first Manufacturers' Championship, but withdraws from Grand Prix racing. World Champion Mike Hawthorn retires from racing. 1959 Mike Hawthorn dies in a road accident. Rear-engined Grand Prix cars begin to replace the front-engined cars on the starting grids. Jack Brabham wins his first Championship event, the Grand Prix of Monaco. Stirling Moss is now driving for private entrant Rob Walker. The German Grand Prix is held for the first and only time at the AVUS circuit in Berlin and is run in two heats. Jean Behra is killed when his car crashes during a support race for the German Grand Prix. Bruce McLaren becomes the youngest driver to win a Championship event when he triumphs at the United States Grand Prix at Sebring. Jack Brabham wins his first World Championship.

Cooper-Climax wins the Manufacturers' Championship. Stirling Moss in 1955 – A Year to Remember | MBCA Stirling Moss in 1955 – A Year to Remember Graham Robson Stirling Moss, Mercedes-Benz and the 1955 racing season Article by Graham Robson Images courtesy Mercedes-Benz Archives Mercedes-Benz had returned to racing in 1952 after recovering from the destruction of war, intent on rebuilding its reputation by dominating Formula One. With no world-beating German racers available, the company had gone outside its borders and hired world-champion driver Juan Manuel Fangio. By 1954, the new W196 race car had proven to be superb in Fangio’s hands, but it was clear that his “No. 2,” German driver Karl Kling, though competent, was not up to the same standards. The team had to find other options. A motorsports marriage made in heaven Stirling Moss was only 25 years old in 1954, but was already Britain‘s most successful race-car driver.

Starting his career in 1948, he had proven his ability to do well anywhere, in any sort of car – but he had yet to win a Formula One World Championship race. The trouble was that he was a British patriot, and wanted to achieve that in a British car. Because there were no competitive British machines, Moss purchased his own Maserati 250F. However, even in the Maserati, Moss found that he couldn’t match Mercedes-Benz and its W196; still, he proved he was best of the rest. The mutual decision that brought Moss to the Mercedes-Benz team in 1955 was the nearest thing to a marriage made in heaven that motorsports could have inspired. After the end of the 1954 season, during which Moss had raced his Maserati in F1 as a privateer and Jaguar D-Types for the factory without much success, it was announced in December that he had signed with Mercedes-Benz for the 1955 season. We now know that Mercedes-Benz team manager Alfred Neubauer first approached Moss November 4, 1954, offering a generous contract, but made it clear that Moss should consider himself as second to Fangio.

Early in December, Moss traveled to the German Hockenheim circuit, tested a much-modified W196 single-seater, and soon produced lap times that Kling could not match – and got the job. After the deal went public days later, Moss enjoyed Christmas at home in England, then started a frenetic 1955 season. A tumultuous season What followed? Readers may have heard some of the stories about Moss’s famous victory for Mercedes-Benz in the Italian Mille Miglia road race and his British F1 Grand Prix victory that followed two months later. But how many realize that Moss only raced for the Mercedes-Benz team for one season? In later years, he would race 300SLs, but these were privately prepared and entered. But what a tumultuous season it was. In nine frantically busy months, Moss started in 13 important international races – seven of them in W196 F1 cars and six in 300SLR two-seaters. On almost every occasion, Fangio was his illustrious teammate and friendly rival; in half of those events, Moss loyally tucked in behind the master’s exhaust pipes to finish second to Fangio.

In his spare time when not racing for Mercedes-Benz, Moss would privately enter other races in other cars – whether they were single-seaters like his own Maserati 250F, two-seater sport racers, or even sedans. And in-between there was the traveling – endless commuting from the U.K. to Germany and the rest of Europe – and the Americas. Bear in mind this was before jet travel, when the British Comet was grounded and Boeing’s first jetliner had yet to fly. How on earth did he manage? A well-honed body, stamina, guts and sheer application to his craft were all factors. Nonetheless, even the indefatigable Moss must have been exhausted by the end of the 1955 racing season. It was typical of Mercedes-Benz to set out not just to win F1 and sports-car races in 1955, but to dominate both categories. A measure of this was the team’s juggling of three different wheelbases, open-wheel and fully streamlined W196 single-seaters during the season, and the enormous trouble of developing massive air brakes for the still nascent 300SLR two-seater sports cars.

The outcome: 16 January 1955: Argentine F1 GP W196 F1 car – fourth place, sharing the car with Kling and Hans Hermann After an exhausting journey to Buenos Aires, Argentina – traveling in piston-engined airliners with cabin noise levels that would be considered quite unacceptable these days – the four-man driving team challenged the first contested F1 event of the new season with updated and shortened-wheelbase W196 single-seaters. With the race held in sweltering sunshine, the victory went to Fangio, while Moss’s original car ran out of fuel and he subsequently shared another car with Kling and Hermann. 30 January 1955: Buenos Aires GP Formula Libre, using W196 F1 cars – second place Two weeks later, the same cars ran with 300SLR-type 3-liter engines in the Buenos Aires GP, which was being run to Formula Libre regulations. On that occasion, the climate was not as oppressively hot as before, though Fangio (the “native,” of course, in his own country) was still the pacesetter.

Moss followed closely behind Fangio in each of the two heats, and when the times were totaled, he was found to be just 12 seconds adrift of Fangio’s time. The pattern for the 1955 season was already set. 30 April–1 May 1955: Mille Miglia Sports Car Race 300SLR – first place with Denis Jenkinson Back in Europe, Mercedes-Benz had already spent much time in perfecting the 300SLR which, in general layout if not in detail, was almost a two-seat version of the W196, though with a 3-liter derivative of the straight-eight engine and a streamlined body style.

Prototypes were seen being tested before the end of 1954, but it was not until April 1955 that they were first raced “in anger.” Having spent three months recovering from the rigors of the Argentine races (including driving an Austin-Healey 100S in the 12 Hours of Sebring race, where he won his capacity class, and racing his own Maserati 250F in several British events), Moss then prepared for the prestigious 1,000-mile Mille Miglia race in Italy. Using public highways throughout the event, the Miglia started and finished in Brescia, near Milan, turning about in Rome. Moss’s victory in this event, of course, is now legendary. He elected to take British journalist and experienced motorcycle racer Denis Jenkinson as his co-driver. To alert Moss to route changes on the complicated route, Jenkinson used a pace-notes system the two developed for the race. During 12,000 miles of practice in March and April, not only in 300SLR “hacks,” but also in a 300SL road car, Jenks recorded each turn and elevation change on the course.

In the race, Jenks read the notes off a continuous ribbon of paper running from one roller to another in an aluminum box under a plexiglass window, a device that Moss invented for the race. Victory came after more than 10 hours’ flat-out motoring – Moss left Brescia at 7:22 a.m. and returned at 5:29 p.m. – in a seemingly unburstable 300SLR, the result being that he averaged an astonishing 97.99 mph. The story is – and well authenticated – that soon after the finish, Moss was still so hyped up by the wakey-wakey pills that Fangio had allegedly provided that he jumped straight into a Mercedes-Benz road car and drove several hundred miles – to and back from – the factory in Stuttgart.

22 May 1955: European F1 GP, Monaco W196 F1 car – ninth place After just two weeks of rest (rest that included competing in his Maserati in a race at Silverstone, in England, where the car blew its engine), he then flew to the south of France, ready to compete in a new lightweight, short-wheelbase W196 in the European F1 GP round the Monaco circuit. Having secured a front-row grid position, Moss soon settled into second place, close behind Fangio’s sister car. On lap 50 of the 100-lap race, he took the lead when Fangio’s car broke its transmission. However, on lap 81, his own engine expired. Moss coasted to the finishing line, and as the race concluded, pushed the car across the line, to officially finish ninth. Mercedes-Benz managers, they say, were flabbergasted. At least it wasn’t far to fly home from Nice to London.

29 May 1955: Eifel Sports Car Race 300SLR – second place The following weekend, Moss and Fangio took part in the Eifelrennen Nürburgring in identical 300SLRs. Moss dutifully trailed behind Fangio and the two enjoyed a trouble-free run to take first and second place. 5 June 1955: Belgian F1 GP W196 F1 car – second place Much soul-searching had followed the W196 engine failures experienced at Monaco, but it was typical of Mercedes-Benz that just two weeks later, in Belgium, the cars were not only back in top form, but the engine problem had been identified, parts were redesigned, and the problem banished to the unhappy-experiences files. Three long-wheelbase W196s, with Fangio, Moss and Kling driving, started the race in ideal conditions; only Kling’s car finally retired, with a broken engine oil pipe. Moss once again settled dutifully down behind his Argentinian master, and after 160 trouble-free minutes, that was how it all ended – with Moss just eight seconds behind Fangio.

11–12 June 1955: 24 Hours of Le Mans 300SLR – Moss and Fangio, withdrawn while leading the race Most motorsports enthusiasts, I am sure, know what happened in this fated sports car race, which was held on the French circuit just six days after the effortless demonstration on the Belgian Spa circuit. It is well known that it was a 300SLR guest-driver, the Frenchman “Pierre Levegh” (a pseudonym), who collided with an Austin-Healey 100S that had moved in front of him to avoid hitting a Jaguar slowing for a pit stop. Levegh’s car was launched into the grandstand and more than 80 people were killed in the inferno that followed. If it is even reasonable that a brief report of the motor race be mentioned, the 300SLRs had been equipped with massive driver-operated airbrakes: Fangio and Moss shared driving in one car, and Levegh and John Fitch operated the second machine.

In the first half of the 24-hour race, a colossal battle took place between the German cars and Jaguar’s long-nosed, disc-braked, D-Types. Immediately after the crash that took place after just two-and-a-half hours into the race, there were suggestions that the race should be abandoned, or that the German cars should in any case be withdrawn; neither occurred at that time. Ten hours into the race, however, Mercedes-Benz directors meeting in Stuttgart told Neubauer to withdraw the 300SLRs. This was done while Moss and Fangio were leading by two clear laps and the sister car driven by Kling and André Simon was third overall. 19 June 1955: Dutch F1 GP W196 F1 – second place Still, there was no rest for the team and its star drivers. Had Moss even been home in the last two or three weeks? We doubt it. A week after the Le Mans disaster, with deep gloom surrounding the sport, three immaculate W196s (Moss’s a medium-length-chassis example and Fangio’s, the even shorter version) took the start on the sandy Zandvoort circuit for the Dutch GP.

Need one say that the W196s dominated the entire weekend, took the front row of the grid, and that within minutes Fangio and Moss were running nose to tail ahead of the entire field. Nearly three hours later, they were still there, still in formation, and there was little doubt that Moss could have fought with Fangio, rather than following him, if the team’s rules had allowed it. 16 July 16 1955: British F1 GP W196 F1 – first place Now there had been time for Moss to relax, if only a little, as four weeks separated the Dutch from the British GPs. On the Aintree circuit near Liverpool, all four cars of the shortened-wheelbase variety were dominant, and all four cars finished – first, second, third and fourth – with Moss amazingly taking the highest of victories. Perhaps we’ll never know if reverse-team-orders were applied in this race: Moss and Fangio swapped the lead several times in the first 26 laps before Moss took over and led to the end; the winning margin was a mere car’s-length; and Moss’s victory speech implied the swap. “Fangio is the greatest driver in the world,” Moss said.

“He could easily have come up, and made it a different story. But, being a sportsman, he allowed me to realize my greatest ambition. ...” We may draw our own conclusions. 7 August 1955: Swedish GP 300SLR – second place Next up, and only three weeks after his historic British GP victory, Moss flew to Sweden to take part in the Swedish Sports Car GP, which covered 32 laps of the Rabelov circuit at Kristianstad. Two of the Le Mans 300SLRs, complete with the air brakes still fitted, had been reprepared, and were to be driven by Moss and Fangio. Where Moss was first off at the Le Mans start, he soon ceded the lead to Fangio in this race, the two of them demolishing the opposition, including Eugenio Castellotti’s 4.4-liter Ferrari and two 3-liter Maseratis. Following the script (and contracts), Moss was due to finish behind Fangio, which he did, completing the 78-minute race just three-tenths of a second behind Fangio. Mission accomplished.

11 September 1955: Italian F1 GP W196 – did not finish Following the Swedish GP, Moss then enjoyed a five-week holiday from his Mercedes-Benz duties, though he still found time to race his own Maserati F1 car in a British event, a Porsche in the British Nine-Hour Motor Race (where he was eliminated by another spinning car), a humble little Standard Ten in a saloon car race at Oulton Park, and in his own Maserati in another small F1 race at Aintree. At about this point in the season, an unnamed journalist quipped, “A stationary Moss gathers no sterling.” Back to serious business in the Italian GP, where the newly constructed steep banking at the Monza Autodrome was used for the first time, Moss soon settled into his habitual place immediately behind Fangio, and was then frustrated when his car first suffered a shattered windscreen, which needed to be replaced, and then the transmission broke.

17 September 1955: RAC Tourist Trophy 300SLR – first place with Fitch Just one week after the Italian race, Moss and the entire factory team turned out for the British Tourist Trophy race, which was held on the Dundrod circuit in Northern Ireland, a twisty and dangerous circuit of public roads that were closed for the occasion. This was an event marred by several horrendous crashes, but Moss, who was sharing the driving in the seven-hour 84-lap race with Fitch, was never involved. The battle for the lead was with Mike Hawthorn’s Jaguar D-Type, and was almost lost for the Germans when Moss put his 300SLR into a stout grass bank and tore the offside rear bodywork. Fitch, through no fault of his own, lost some ground, and in the second part of the race it was Moss who caught and passed his rivals. Twenty laps from the end he was back in the lead, the Jaguar’s engine expired in the closing minutes, and Moss won, beating his teammates Fangio/Kling by a full five-minute lap. It was an amazing performance – all on Moss’s 26th birthday.

16 October 1955: Targa Florio 300SLR – first place with Peter Collins According to the original Mercedes-Benz master plan, the 300SLRs were then scheduled to compete in Venezuela, so Moss set off on a holiday in the south of France for a few days. That lasted for just one week, for in the meantime Neubauer’s calculations determined that success in Sicily’s Targa Florio that followed in October might secure the World Sportscar Championship instead. A change of plan immediately followed and – as The Star contributor Karl Ludvigsen later wrote – a convoy of eight sports cars, 15 private cars, eight heavy trucks and 45 mechanics traveled to the Mediterranean island to compete. Moss’s co-driver was Peter Collins, and they set amazing times in a race that lasted for more than nine hours on a 44.7-mile open-road circuit. Although they eventually won, beating – guess who? – Fangio and Kling in a sister car, the car went off the road on several occasions, once needing the help of hordes of onlookers, and a five-minute delay to get it back on track.

No wonder it was so knocked about and looked fit only for the scrap yard when the 13 laps were completed. But it proved, once and for all, the current dominance in sports car racing of the Moss-plus-Mercedes-Benz combination. And that – suddenly, abruptly, and brutally – was that. Even before the start of the Targa Florio, the company had decided to withdraw from motorsports, informing Neubauer, but forbidding him from telling the drivers and mechanics until after the event. Quoting the letter sent to Neubauer: “After mature deliberation the management committee has decided ... to absent itself ... irrevocably from motor racing for several years. …” And so it did. On October 22, 1955, just six days after that historic triumph in Sicily, the world’s press was informed – and Stirling Moss found himself out of a job. Of course it would not be the end of his career, but rather the further blossoming of a glorious phase in his life, for within only nine months, Moss had won three World Championship sports car races, one Formula One race – and finished behind Fangio, in a sister car, on no fewer than five other occasions. What next?

As promised, Mercedes-Benz was serious about its withdrawal from motorsports, for the W196 and 300SLRs never turned another wheel in competition, and the next works cars were 220SE Saloons that appeared – and excelled – in rallying beginning in 1960. Later works race cars were also saloons, but even then, they needed development enthusiast Erich Waxenberger to make that possible in the late 1960s. For Moss, it was a case of onward and upward. In 1956 he became Maserati’s F1 star in 250Fs, in 1957/58 he started winning F1 races in British Vanwalls, after which he freelanced in Coopers and Lotuses. Oh yes, and starred on the Aston Martin racing sports car team, too. Then came his dreadful crash at Goodwood in 1962, which brought his active racing career to an end. But Moss was by no means finished with automobiles or motorsports. He added his knowledge and experience as a commentator to ABC coverage of motor racing through 1980 while occasionally racing in world rally competitions.

For the subsequent three decades he has been active in historic racing, finally retiring in 2011. He was knighted in 2000 for his many contributions to British industry, so if you meet him at one of the many Mercedes-Benz events in which he participates today, you should address him as Sir Stirling. OPPOSITE PAGE: Brescia, Italy, May 1, 1955. A jubilant Stirling Moss, here with Mercedes-Benz racing director Alfred Neubauer, has just won the 1955 Mille Miglia in his now-forever-famous 300SLR, No. 722. His record time of just over 10 hours, at an average speed of almost 100 miles per hour, stands to this day. OPPOSITE PAGE, TOP: Stirling Moss and his friend, British motoring journalist Denis Jenkinson, drift through a corner at speed in their 300SLR during the Mille Miglia.

Moss, who drove the race with near superhuman skill and concentration, aided by Jenks’s considerable navigational skills, did manage to visit a ditch and collect the odd hay bale, which left a telltale chunk of straw in the front intake. BOTTOM: in the Eifel Sports Car Race at the N¸rburgring May 29, 1955, Juan Manuel Fangio and Moss finished an effortless first and second respectively, once again driving the mighty 300SLRs to a crushing victory. OPPOSITE PAGE, TOP: Stirling Moss wins his first Formula One race, the British Grand Prix at Aintree in July, just beating teammate Juan Manuel Fangio in an identical W196 over the finish line. MIDDLE: The teammates celebrate their 1-2 win in the paddock. Second place finisher Fangio wears a traditional laurel victor’s wreath, a charmingly archaic custom soon to disappear from racing circuits everywhere. BOTTOM: Moss takes the checkered flag in the RAC Tourist Trophy race on the Dunrod circuit in Northern Ireland. His co-driver in the 300SLR was American driver John Fitch.

Liverpool Grand Prix – Blog, Liverpool Museums 2 July 2015 by Liz Aintree Circuit Lap Record Trophy. On display in Wondrous Place gallery in the Museum of Liverpool I’m an archaeologist at the Museum of Liverpool, so this blog relates to history which is a bit modern for me, but in my down-time I follow Formula One motorsport and have an interest in its history. This weekend’s British Grand Prix marks the 60th anniversary of the first time a British Driver won a Grand Prix on home soil. The 1955 British Grand Prix was held at Aintree, and Sir Stirling Moss took the chequered flag ahead of his team-mate Juan Manuel Fangio. Moss described, many years later, that having overtaken Fangio, “I thought, well, I’m just going to go as hard as I possibly can, which is what I did, and he was just right behind me”. Sir Stirling Moss is now frequently considered to be the most talented driver never to become Formula One World Champion. He described winning at Aintree in 1955, his first Grand Prix victory, “in front of your own crowd, obviously that is terribly special”.

Moss took the Aintree Automobile Racing Circuit Lap Record Trophy that day and on three other occasions. This is on display in the Wondrous Place gallery in the Museum of Liverpool. He went on to win the Monaco Grand Prix the following year, taking the two most prestigious Grand Prix wins for a British driver. Programme from the 1962 Grand Prix, the last held at Aintree. On display in the Wondrous Place gallery. In 1955 the Formula One season was curtailed due to safety concerns following a terrible tragic accident at the Le Mans 24 Hour race, in which driver, Pierre Levegh and 83 spectators were killed. With fewer-than-planned races in the season Moss was unable to catch-up on the points lead Fangio gained early in the season. Fangio won the World Championship with 40 points, including four race wins. Moss’s 23 points gained him second place. Aintree, now better know for races on four legs than four wheels, had a Motorsport circuit, built in 1954. This was Britain’s first purpose-built racing circuit, others converted from earlier functions such as airfields.

A plaque celebrating its completion is on display in the Wondrous Place gallery. Aintree hosted the British Grand Prix alternate years with Silverstone between 1955 and 1961, with a final Grand Prix held at Aintree in 1962. Moss considered Aintree to be a “great venue” even if the circuit was “hard on breaks”. He remembers, “we had to cross… where they had the horses go, in a couple of places”. Aintree’s Grand Prix days ended after the 1962 race, which was attended by an eight year old boy named Nigel Mansell, whose career choice was initially inspired by watching Jim Clark’s victory there in a Lotus. The route of the Grand Prix circuit is now bisected by Melling Road. A shortened motorsport circuit is still used for motorcycle races and track days .

Question: At which circuit in 1955 did Stirling Moss win his first British Grand Prix, the race's debut at that circuit?
Answer: AINTREE